The invention relates to a contraction machine, hereafter contraction engine, pump or pump system including two(2) rigid spaced apart elements mutually connected by at least one piston/cylinder system, which piston/cylinder system receives an operational medium. At least one of the spaced apart elements being displaceably mounted in the direction of displacement of the piston/cylinder system.
The German patent 30 26 864 describes an evaporation machine, using the power of expansion of an expanding material when liquid is being added, as mechanical energy. The known evaporation engine comprises a vessel containing expansion elements, conduit fittings and the work-performing medium enclosing the expanding elements. Water and air are alternatingly fed through valves to the expanding elements. The water flows cyclically into the expanding elements through the conduit fittings and the through the valve. The expanding elements expand and transmit pressure and an increase in volume to the work-performing medium being guided through the conduit fitting and through the valve in order to do work. While this known evaporation engine can make use of both the heat in the ambient air and waste heat, the cost of drying the expanding material on the other hand is comparatively high.
The German patent 28 57 109 discloses an engine equipped with contractile, ion-separating means. These means are folded plates rigidly suspended at one end to a stationary, rigid power supply and connected at the other end to a displaceable network. An ion-rich liquid and an ion-poor liquid are alternatingly made to pass over the plates which thereby alternatingly contract and expand. This alternating power of contraction and expansion is transmitted to a mechanically displaceable element. Because the plates are affixed, they disadvantageously require guidance.
The German patent 709 701 discloses apparatus generating mechanical energy using a revolving belt made of a swellable material and by evaporating a liquid.
Apparatus generating mechanical power are known from U.S. Pat. No. 4,150,544 comprising revolving belts of which one part is heated while the other part is cooled.
German patent 33 36 406 discloses apparatus generating mechanical heat from heat, wherein a liquid is pumped to-and-for between deforming and hence volume-variable hollow spheres.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,186,558 concerns an engine converting thermal into mechanical energy by periodically freezing and melting a liquid in a cylinder.